


pseudologia fantastica

by Nivena



Series: narratives of villainy [4]
Category: Loki: Agent of Asgard, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, Continuity What Continuity, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Internalized Homophobia, Lots of Prose, Magic Meta, Magpies, STEALTH PUNS, Tropes, Unreliable Narrator, and said semi sarcastically, but im still tagging it!, loki really likes prose, only a single sentence, uh what else?, whats the difference between authors and liars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 10:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8664379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nivena/pseuds/Nivena
Summary: You are Loki. You are a liar.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this and the next one are dedicated to Maddy: who pointed out to me that I can't say "5 villains" if I've only written 3.
> 
> anyways: this is Agent of Asgard Loki because that's the only version of loki that matters to me. i don't actually care too much abt continuity tho and it shows.

i.  
You are Loki. You are a liar.

 

ii.  
You are not clever in the way an ancient tome is clever. You are clever in the way an old wive's tale is clever. You are cunning, a liar, and above all: immortal. Like a cockroach. One that shapeshifts, molds itself to each situation, cuts away and adds on to itself until it may thrive in the collective consciousness of humanity, and this metaphor is falling apart at its word-seams. Where are you? Oh, right. Prose.

 

iii.  
The truth can be covered up. Lies will never leave you.

 

iv.  
The magpie follows you through thick and thin, at the beginning dependably lurking in the corner of your vision. You think at first it is a motif, a shorthand symbol for your existence.

 

How sad. You're already being defined, and the minute a story become predictable, it is _put down._

v.  
You were born around a fire, from the mouths of old women consoling children during storms. You are reborn around every half-fabricated white lie told to appease, every propaganda piece put out by a desperate government, every story that has ever graced the ink and page. You hide in the shadows of everyday interactions, in the one-upping chatter about weekend plans, in grand sweeping speeches. You are a lie.

 

Or rather, you are a story. There isn't much of a difference. All authors are liars.

 

vi.  
They talk of you in Asgard. The misshapen son, the one that lived in shadows. Always too small compared to her domineering brother, accomplishments overshadowed or feared. Your story changes as time changes, as humanity foists onto you all the things they fear and hate, and you grow to accommodate them and their incessant, _human_ need to have a villain. They talk of how you kiss both boys and girls and how you are neither a boy nor a girl, and how perverse and hateful this makes you.

 

They talk of your lies.

 

You don't spend your time with anyone but Thor anymore, because kids are cruel, and you are no exception. They don't let you near the others anymore. The kids don't like you for fantasy racism reasons, or something suitably trope-y like that. Whoever wrote your start wasn't particularly creative. You come from unoriginal origins, but it doesn't matter. The end will be extraordinary.

 

It will, because you'll write it yourself.

 

vii.  
You know how it goes. Brother is the classic hero, textbook and conforming and masculine. His story can only end one way. He only needs a villain.

 

Fated, huh? How boring.

 

viii.  
For years, you try to clean off the ink of definition from your reputation. You polish and scrub until it shines like silver, but the role of the villain you stepped into accidentally clings stubbornly like smudges on pristine white paper. The name changes are endless, Odinson to Laufeyson to Friggasdottir to plain, simple, Loki. Very Cher, that way.

 

You are a story between drafts. Uncomfortable and in the process of being rewritten, fragments of sentences thrown on a page. Your lines extend too far out of the panels, you exist in places wrong and cleared. Ideas and concepts and no  _execution_.

 

You clear the bad with good deeds, done in All-Mother's name. You twist and erase and delete all mentions of -

 

There are some crimes that cannot be forgiven.

 

ix.  
There you go. Sitting on the ground, the wreckage of your plans burning around you. You will survive this, of course. Stories are what make humans human, and so long as your brother protects them with his life, you will never die. There are infinite ways the villain's path may take them, and life in defeat is yours. Then, again, maybe it isn't.

 

After all, I control the narrative.

 

x.  
I am Loki. I am a story.

**Author's Note:**

> ok i will forever love the themes of agent of asgard bc like! yes! lets talk more about stories and lying and meta about what it means to be a hero!!! lets have canonically genderfluid and bisexual loki who can't figure out what it means to have an identity outside of being a liar and a villain!!! esp in the realm of comics which is just. stagnant but also ever changing in so many ways. HHHHH i like really really love agent of asgard and i think loki was such a great vehicle for this story and i know it probably won't ever happen but i want more continuation! (even tho it had p good closure.) 
> 
> anyways i highly recommend that comic even if you don't like loki bc it's really fucking great. like i despised him and thought he was a shitty character until i read that run it is. So Good. don't read anything after that tho bc AoA had SUCH great character work and then right afterwards it got destroyed and Loki went back to being the same one-dimensional villain. ugh.


End file.
